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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Surprising Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Fitness Goals

Guest Post by
Geoffrey Chiu

Through years of experimental and
observational research on human physiology and biomechanics, science has
dictated the optimal way to train for specific fitness goals. The problem is,
the most efficient route may not always be the most enjoyable -- especially for
people new to exercise.

What often happens to beginners is that
they begin to find their routine boring and monotonous. These people eventually
fall off and stop working out all together; whether it’s due to boredom or
a lack of progress/results. Now, much like science, where adherence is an
important factor in experimental studies, adherence is also a crucial part of a
beginner's long-term fitness success.

The
Dual Process Approach

In order for a person
to adhere to an exercise program, they must first have the intention of
working out. Psychologists theorize that the strongest conscious predictor
of behavior and adherence is intention (1). Does the person
have an intention to lose weight? To get stronger? To run faster? The first
step to exercising is being conscious about wanting to change their behavior. Psychologists
have also proposed that the greatest unconscious predictor
is habit(2). Habits are said to be automatic
actions or responses to a specific cue. Together, they form what is called a
Dual Process approach to exercise habit and behavior formation (3). The Dual
Process approach proposes that both conscious and unconscious processes of the
brain work in conjunction in order to successfully form a behavior.

Setting
Goals – Intentions

Do you have a clear,
conscious thought about exercising? Great, you have already formed an
intention. But let’s get more in depth to make sure you take your first step
towards exercising: setting goals.

Step 1) Evaluate your
current lifestyle, what don’t you like about it? What areas in your life are
problematic?

Step 2) Set long-term goals.
This is what you dream about, losing 30 lbs of fat, putting 50 lbs on your
bench press, being able to run a full marathon. Whatever your goals may be,
write them down!

Step 3) Set a couple
short-term goals. The word “short-term” can be ambiguous; does it mean within a
1-month time frame? 2 months? 6 months? I like considering short-term goals as
the baby steps that you take towards your long-term goals. Some short-term
goals might be

a)Finding a local gym
and buying a membership

b)Planning your
exercise frequency around your current work/school schedule (e.g. My short-term
goal is to go to the gym three times a week. I will go after work on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday for 45 minutes each session).

Make sure the goals
that you are setting are realistic and sustainable (which helps with habit
formation). Setting a goal to hit the gym before you leave for work isn’t
realistic if you have to be at work by 8:00 am and it takes you an hour to
drive there, especially if you’re not used to waking up at 5:00 am. (The exception
here would be if you have a very tight schedule and can’t find an alternative
time.) Setting a goal to lose 30 lbs of fat in one month is also not realistic,
as it would likely cause you to resort to unhealthy and dangerous ways of losing
the weight.

Habit
Formation

Researchers suggest
that there are four factors that contribute to habit formation: rewards,
behavioral complexity, consistency and environmental cues(4). Let’s go over each factor,
including suggestions for increasing your chances of forming long-lasting
exercise habits.

Rewards

Operant conditioning (OC) often explains
and drives many of our behaviors and psychology. The OC theory states that
behaviors are controlled by consequences, specifically, through reinforcement
and punishment (5). Reinforcement is a process that increases the frequency of
the behavior either through a rewarding stimulus (positive reinforcement) or a
removal of an unfavorable stimulus (negative reinforcement). Punishment, on the
other hand, is a process that decreases the frequency of a certain behavior
either through an introduction of an aversive stimulus (positive punishment -- yes, there is such a thing), or a removal of a favorable stimulus (negative
punishment). The following figure illustrates the breakdown of the OC theory.

Exercise is
unique in the sense that you go through periods of positive punishment before
you reach the stage of positive reinforcement. The physiological adaptations
and side effects of exercise/working out (resistance exercise, especially) are
usually muscle soreness and overall body fatigue, which is considered by
definition to be positive punishment (because there is an introduction of
unfavorable stimuli). These outcomes are unavoidable with exercise, but it is
our body’s ability to adapt to these stressors that makes us better and
healthier than we were before.

It’s
important to fight the urge to give up and fall off the exercise program.
The reason why we continue to exercise is that we know exercise is good
for our health and that we expect results. So why do people quit
after a few workouts? 1) They simply don’t experience the results they were
aiming for, and 2) somewhere along their fitness journey, they decided that
feeling uncomfortable, tired, and sore wasn’t worth it.

Getting a person to
adhere to their exercise program (increasing behavior) is all about rewards
(positive reinforcement). People’s exercise frequency and behavior increases
when they start seeing their goals come to fruition in the form of fat loss,
pain alleviation, increased mobility, etc. Knowing that, how do we increase the
chance of positive reinforcement and maximize our rewards?

1) Education

Learning safe and
effective exercise technique is key to maximizing your results and giving you the
comfort of knowing that the exercises you are performing will move you towards
your goal. Education is also important for setting realistic expectations.
Knowing that it is physiological impossibility to gain 20 lbs of muscle mass in
two weeks will save you frustration and disappointment when you realize that
you look the same as you did before the past two weeks of “hardcore”
weightlifting. People looking to lose fat mass may not see results until 3
weeks into exercising, whereas people looking to pack on muscle mass may not
see results until 8-9 weeks of resistance training (depending on previous
lifting experience).

2) Hire
a knowledgeable personal trainer/coach

If you lack the free
time to do your own research on health and fitness, it’s wise to hire a fitness
professional to help you out. Unfortunately, it can be pretty hard to
differentiate between a good and bad trainer (no, their physique doesn’t tell you
much about their fitness knowledge). Read some reviews, and ask your friends or
family members for a referral. Choosing a good personal trainer might also be a
trial and error process.

3)
Think long-term

Avoid programs like
INSANITY, P90X, ab-blaster 9000 or any program that “promises” you results in a
very short period of time. You will increase the chances of acquiring an injury,
and the results you gain from these programs are most likely not sustainable.
The truth is, you’ll most likely have to develop a good aerobic conditioning
base, proper movement patterns, and flexibility before you can partake in
high-intensity, high-impact, or heavy-loaded exercises. Ease your way into it
and remind yourself that you’re in this for the long run.

Behavioral
Complexity

The more complex the
behavior, the more likely it will require conscious processes (6). Since the
dual process approach proposes that habit is often created through unconscious,
automated processes and cues, we must start off our exercise program with
simple and easy-to-digest exercises. Although learning new exercise techniques
does require conscious thoughts and increased body proprioception, it would be
a much better idea to learn how to perform a bodyweight squat than it would be
to learn a power snatch.

The complexity of the
behavior (exercise in this case) is also related to self-efficacy. Exercises
with a low complexity will boost our confidence as we believe we have more
chances of succeeding it in (unconscious self-efficacy). This is why running,
cycling, and hiking are more popular than resistance training or sports: they’re
simple to do (plus the fact that they’re more accessible and convenient to the
general population)!

Here are a few ways
we can minimize behavioral complexity in hopes of maximizing habit formation:

1) Start
slow and ease your way in

This relates to point
#3 under Rewards. Building an aerobic conditioning base and
learning simple movement patterns (squat, hip hinge, pushing, and pulling) will
go a long way in helping you achieve your short- and long-term fitness goals.

2) Regressions
and progressions

For bodyweight and
resistance exercises, learn the regressions and progressions of each exercise
(or hire a professional) so you can monitor your improvement and know how to
reduce or increase the complexity of every exercise.

Environmental
Cues

The environment also
plays a big role in habit development, as it can “prompt or disrupt automatic
behavior” (7). Contexts where we feel safe and comfortable will boost
self-efficacy and greatly contribute to forming unconscious behavior. It’s hard
for people with low self-esteem and social physique anxiety to participate in
group classes or expose themselves to a whole gym. It takes time to realize
that most people either a) don’t care about you or b) are willing to encourage
you and help you achieve your goals. The rest are just assholes. So how do we
control our environment for habit formation to work in our favor?

1) Choose
an appropriate gym/health club

If you’re completely
new to exercising, choosing a family-oriented health club may be the best
decision. You will feel more comfortable and be around others with the same
goals as you. Joining a hardcore powerlifting or bodybuilding gym (or any gym
with an intimidating environment) would not be a good idea and may actually discourage
you from going to the gym again. Also, picking a gym that is nearby will
increase your chances of going (would you rather have a five-minute walk to the
gym or an hour drive?

2) Partner
training

Workout with your
friend or family member. It’s a great way to hold each other accountable and
motivate each other to reach your goals. You’ll feel more comfortable if
someone you know is on the ride with you.

3) Getting
out of your comfort zone

Realize that
eventually you will have to reach out of your comfort zone in order to change
your lifestyle in a positive way. Take small steps every day to improve your
confidence and let the snowball effect take place!

Consistency

Lastly, and perhaps
most importantly, forming habits require a high degree of consistency. The more
frequently and consistently we perform a task, the more accustomed and
comfortable we are with it. In this context, we are talking about the
consistency of exercising and practicing good health choices and habits. Here are
some ways to stay consistent:

1) Monitor
your progress

Track your bodyweight
daily or weekly, write down the amount of weight you lifted, jot down how many
miles or how long you ran for. Monitoring markers of health and exercise gives
you an idea of how much you are progressing. It also motivates you to adhere to
your exercise program in order to beat your previous personal bests. Many
beginners do not monitor their progress closely enough, thereby failing to see
the results they’re making. The mirror is generally not a good indication of
minute changes in body physique or health markers!

2) Hire
a personal trainer/buy a personal training package

Having someone to
hold you accountable for your behavior is a good way to force yourself to stay
consistent. Buying a package of 12 or 20 personal training sessions shows
commitment and forces you to show up to training sessions… or you lose money!!

3) Plan
ahead

Scheduling is of the utmost
importance. In order to stay consistent, you must have dedicated time slots in
your week to devote to working out. Carrying out a behavior or performing a
certain task at the same time every day or week helps with forming habits; this
concept is called temporal consistency (8). For example, I work out after
school every other day.

Adherence

Let’s say you’ve been
working out for three months now and have been seeing results, but you’re starting
to lose motivation because the workouts are getting boring and stale. How do you
jazz things up and make them more interesting? After all, one of the keys to
exercise adherence is variation.

Although it might
sound cool to just pick random exercises out of a hat to include into your next
workout, having a plan is much better (most of the time).

There are many
different variables you can change in your workout to make them more
interesting. An easy method is to pick several different exercise modalities to
perform in one workout session, an example would be weightlifting and
bodyweight exercises then followed by a steady state endurance exercise like
swimming or cycling. Another strategy you can implement is adding exercises of
varying speeds within the same group of exercises or muscles involved. If you
were working on your posterior chain muscles (glutes, lower back, hamstring) in
a workout, performing 3 exercises with different speeds would look something
like this (from slowest to fastest): Isometric lower back extension holds,
barbell hip bridge and explosive kettlebell swings. The exercise order can be
altered to fit your specific fitness goals and experience. It changes the pace
of the workout and keeps things interesting.

Along with exercise
tempo and speed, you can also include exercises of various planes of motion.
The figure below illustrates the planes of movement of the body.

Many people do a
majority of their exercises in the sagittal plane (basically up and down), this
includes exercises such as the squat, bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, deadlifts,
etc. Because the prime movers of exercises in the sagittal plane are mostly
flexion and extension muscles, our rotational, abductor and adductor muscles
are often neglected. While they might be activated to a certain degree during
sagittal plane movements (as synergistic muscles or stabilizers), it is smart
to include exercises in the frontal and transverse plane in order to work these
muscles through their whole range of motion. Some frontal plane exercises
include dumbbell lateral raises, lateral box jumps and side lunges. Transverse
plane exercise are rotational in nature and include Pallof presses, rotational
medicine ball throws, and wood choppers.

Benefits of Exercise
Selection Variation

Let’s face it: unless
you’re a powerlifter, few people want to focus solely on squat, bench press, and
deadlift. Doing a variety exercises of different tempos, planes of motion, and
complexity is what makes working out enjoyable. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do
effective compound exercises like the squat, bench press, deadlift, and military
press. In most cases, these exercises should be at the core of your program,
but you should add a variety of exercise modalities into your workout,
especially if your goal is to increase your general fitness (fat loss, muscle
gain, cardiovascular endurance). Here are my recommendations:

1)
Apply the principle of progressive overload

Strive to add weight
to the bar or increase the number of sets or reps that you do over time.
Progressive overload is a principle that, in order for the body to grow better
and stronger, we must gradually increase the amount of stress we put on it during
exercise.

2)
Select your exercises in blocks

Don’t switch up your
exercises every day or every week; the concept of muscle confusion is a foolish
one. Rather, select a group of exercises and keep them for three or more weeks.
This gives us time to either improve our technique and allows us to apply the
principle of progressive overload in order to reap the benefits of those
particular exercises.

3)
Individualize

Pick exercises you
like and find enjoyable and simple. To address bodily weaknesses or
asymmetries, carefully select exercises that will target those weak spots.

Practicing multiple
movement patterns and perfecting the technique of various exercises serves as general
physical preparation, which increases your general fitness so you’ll be more
successful in whatever additional sport or activity you choose. Most of the
great athletes in the 21st century usually have a history of playing multiple
sports before they became great at their respective sport (Michael Jordan,
Steve Nash).

2) Creating
sustainable exercise habits will require both conscious and unconscious
factors. Understanding these factors and applying mental cues will help you
maximize your chances of habit formation.

3) Expect to
move out of your comfort zone if you want a positive change in your life.

4) Variation
will greatly improve exercise adherence.

About the Author

Geoff Chiu is a NASM-CPT and a senior
undergraduate in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British
Columbia. His focus is on periodization, exercise physiology, and all things
strength & conditioning. Pursing his CSCS and Master's Degree in the near
future, he hopes to get people thinking critically and intelligently about
training and nutrition, while helping athletes reach their high performance
goals.